The Abolition of Britain: From Winston Churchill to Theresa May

“Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.”― Roger ScrutonPeter's first, and arguably finest, book notes interesting and infuriating cultural changes between the deaths and funerals of Winston Churchill and Princess Diana. We have achieved miraculous advancements in material means. At the same time, we have lost sight of important civics that took centuries - if not millennia - to conclude on.Peter makes a point not to cause based on the correlation. Critics accuse him of rose-hued nostalgia for the past, when he's explicitly condemned this notion. The tools of today may be easier to misuse, but that does not grant them any more inherent morality than tools of the past.I recommend "The Abolition of Britain" as a warning from observed history, a thoughtful read. Even though we don't exactly have a clear way forward, it does help to enumerate which paths take us backwards.

For the last 10-15 years each trip back to London has been more and more like a trip to a continental city. I'd become a foreigner in the city of my birth -- and it wasn't me that had changed. This book explains what happened and why. For a 70s radical it is tough to take. While I find some of the Hitchens's ideas abhorrent, his arguments are compelling and convincing. The social change we fought for have contributed to bringing - or have been used to bring - the British culture to the verge of extinction. It's a uniquely British dilemma; so many post-war Britons are embarrassed by their nation and reject it. It's similar to the experience of the US during the Vietnam era but that ended and the wounds healed. I highly recommend this book both as a thesis on the continentalisation of Britain, and on some unintended consequences of socialist (read liberal) beliefs.

~The Abolition of Britain: From Winston Churchill to Princess Diana~ goes to show that Britain has become a shadow of its former self. This is a hard hitting, no holds barred social criticism from journalist Peter Hitchens. Hitchens is quite a wordsmith and has taken to the task of putting Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" under a microscope. The UK just like my beloved America is in the midst of a culture war. Britain's traditions, culture and cherished national institutions are being demonized and eroded from within by cultural Marxism... Hitchens is quite frank in admitting the British national spirit has lost its dynamo, because of the assent of the Americans on the world stage, which has become a political, cultural and economic superpower. Though, he tacitly admits Britain can't blame all of its woes on Hollywood and Yankees. It appears Gramsci's "long march through the institutions" has taken its toll, particularly in Britain. Frankly, Britain seems to be in a worst boat than the US now with its embrace of multiculturalism. Britain has been browbeaten into an imperial guilt complex where its cherished cultural contribution to the world is ridiculed as "racist" and "jingoistic." Even Shakespeare is under attack which Hitchens makes light of. Hitchens also chronicles the attack on traditional morality and Christendom by liberal relativists. Britain's sexual revolution has dealt a harsh blow to the traditional family while a state hijacked by leftists has aided and abetted in the attack on the family. Take a walk on a London street, as I have, and you'll see phone booths littered with pornographic solicitations for prostitutes. And the societal stigmatism against immorality seems to have faded. The book really doesn't touch much on the immigration issue though... which might be worth addressing since London increasingly looks like one of its former colonies in terms of demographic make-up. Sadly, this book though reads like an obituary. Hitchens never offers a prescription for reversing the perilous course Britain has taken. For non-British readers, the book may get boring at times when Hitchens speaks of people, places and things that they aren't all familiar with and/or have trouble relating to. This diagnosis of a culture in chaos may be just for Britain, but a cultural war is being waged throughout the West. I give Abolition of Britain a (3.5/5.0 stars.)

The author hinges his work on Britain. But truth to tell: he is dealing with the whole of the Western world - and even beyond. An eye-opener, most certainly.

Peter's brilliant analysis of the implications of the profound changes which Britain has undergone in the last 3 decades if the 20th century is very interesting. This very readable book will tell you much which you didn't know and help you to put a lot of things into the proper perspective.

I like that it arrived in good shape -- so I could read it.

This is a fascinating book and it arrived quite quickly - many thanks !

I have wanted to read this book for so long but never had the courage to do so as I feared I would succumb to the pessimism of the writer on the topic of the book. I am glad however that I did read it as it does offer a slight glimmer of hope.

British, but relevant to the West on the whole. Hitchens makes a strong case for lamenting legislation that sells off our cultural inheritance and healthy traditions in the name of progress. This is not a eulogy for the lost, it’s a manifesto for the willing, who are seeking to buy back the family farm, & liberate life from the paralysis of political correctness, the tyranny of the bureaucratic caste and it’s well produced smoke, mirrors, smiles, lies and hi-fives.

When you read a mediocre book for a second time you get less out than the first time but with a very good book it is otherwise. On finishing The Abolition of Britain the enormity of what has occurred really hit home for the first time. I knew at least the bones of the story, the revolution in religion and morals, television, education, housing and cars, and since I was born in 1958 I was old enough to have been vividly aware that what had happened was extraordinary and in the main wrong. But this book brings all these threads together and more to produce a powerful whole.The author thinks the book only "quite good" and I am sure he has his reasons saying that only the chapter comparing the funerals of Churchill and Diana would he leave unchanged. I found his chapter about the Church of England particularly interesting but what impressed me most perhaps was his chapter on the de-stigmatizing of the unmarried mother. I haven't read widely about the history of this topic but I would nevertheless be at least a little surprised if any one has done a better job (or even, it is slightly more than theoretically possible, any job). In fact I found myself consulting this chapter for support when I got involved in an on-line argument.There is nobody, living or dead, quite like Peter Hitchens nor anyone who can answer his arguments. He has written excellent, well-researched books about some of the subjects covered in the Abolition of Britain: politics, the mythical war on drugs and crime, which are all well worth reading (and re-reading) and is now writing an epitaph (I think) for Britain, which I await expectantly.

If you are looking for a balanced view about Britains identity and membership of the European project , it isn’t here. No doubt about the writing however, it runs along well. And there is the problem. one can read an outright outrageous statement and breeze over it. One needs to be hypercritical when reading, as there seems to be an assumption that there was a glorious good old England once upon a time. Everything since Henry VIII is bad and the country has gone to the dogs since good old Henry.